Visual storytelling artists have a new venue

Tom Hart is preparing a Sequential Artists Workshop, a Gainesville school for aspiring artists of comics, graphic novels and visual storytelling, for two weeks of classes.

By Nicole La HozCorrespondent

Tom Hart slips a red hardcover book into the "required reading" bookshelf. Hundreds of books -- the human anatomy, history of comics, skeletal structures, a collection of political cartoons -- fill the bookshelf."We're in the process of organizing this," says Hart, 42. He tiptoes toward a stack of Japanese comic books, an array of 1930s newspaper strips and a series of silent art, or comics with no text, on the top shelf.He's preparing the Sequential Artists Workshop, a Gainesville school for aspiring artists of comics, graphic novels and visual storytelling, for two weeks of classes.Beginning Monday, Hart, the founder and director of SAW, will offer a course for teenagers that explores skills for short- and long-term sequential art projects that include anything from comics to graphic novels and manga to cartooning. Also on hand to teach is Sally Cantirino, a senior art student at Kean University."Teenage years for kids who are serious about art are intensive," says Hart, who taught comics for 10 years at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. "They're ready to move on as better artists at this time."Monday through Friday, the Summer Teen Intensive workshop presents character design and storytelling techniques that will culminate in a one-page comic creation. Students then ease into a five- to eight-page story published at the end of the workshop.Hart plans on holding a gallery opening and a book release party for all participants June 29, which coincides with ArtWalk.While for some people, the world of comics is defined by superheroes in action, Hart says sequential art is far from a children's medium."Comics can be about a complicated story and experiences," says Hart, holding a copy of "Maus," a 1980s graphic novel by Art Spiegelman about the experiences of a Holocaust survivor. Spiegelman won a special Pulitzer Prize for "Maus" in 1992, the first graphic novel to win that award.Hart opened SAW in January with his wife, illustrator Leela Corman, 40, whose graphic novel "Unterzakhn" (Schocken Books, $24.95) has received rave reviews by Publishers Weekly and The Jewish Week.Tucked behind Citizens Co-op and the Civic Media Center at 18 SE 5th Ave., SAW is dedicated to promoting sequential art, providing work and gallery spaces for artists as well as offer classes, he says.After moving to Gainesville in 1996 to publish a project with a friend, Hart, a New York native, said he fell in love with Gainesville's "desirable, vibrant culture."Phil Weiss, 31, walks into Justine Andersen's inking class ready to discuss his work. Weiss asks Andersen, who has worked on DC comics illustrations, how to lighten up his brush strokes."[Class] exercises my storytelling ability in a variety of short formats," Weiss says. SAW was the last push he needed to complete a graphic novel, he says."It puts me in touch with a community of people interested in alternative comics."When there aren't classes or artists walking in looking for work space, Hart pulls out a black stand with all his materials: ink, paper, exacto knife, eraser, penciled-in comic book drawings.He reaches for a marker and begins tracing thousands of meticulous lines. They form grass, trees, people and speech bubbles."When you bounce pictures and words off each other to tell a story," he says, "that's sequential art."